Preview — Tris & Izzie
by Mette Ivie Harrison

Tris & Izzie

A modern retelling of the German fairytale "Tristan and Isolde", Tris and Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until -- she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new gA modern retelling of the German fairytale "Tristan and Isolde", Tris and Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until -- she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school....more

Community Reviews

This book made me so angry; I don’t even know where to start. I haven’t been this angry over a book since like forever. I guess I’ll take it in parts: writing, characters, and the romance. I must state here first that I’ve never read the original tale this is based off of but I’m quite sure it’s nothing like this retelling is.

WRITING

My gosh, what the heck happened? I read one of Mette Ivie Harrison’s books before, The Princess and the Hound,Be warned. This review will be long and full of raging.

This book made me so angry; I don’t even know where to start. I haven’t been this angry over a book since like forever. I guess I’ll take it in parts: writing, characters, and the romance. I must state here first that I’ve never read the original tale this is based off of but I’m quite sure it’s nothing like this retelling is.

WRITING

My gosh, what the heck happened? I read one of Mette Ivie Harrison’s books before, The Princess and the Hound, and while it wasn’t anything groundbreaking it was a good solid book with a fun plot and clearly defined characters. In Tris and Izzie everything was just thrown away and burn in a huge bonfire!

I can’t tell you how insipid the writing was – the dialogue was so cringe worthy, I can’t even begin to start.

Ie: “I stayed because I could not leave," he said. "I stayed because there was no place for me to go if you would not be mine. No house could be a home; no sunrise could be warm and light if you were gone from me. I need you. Without you I do not think I could live.”

Can you get anymore sappy and overdramatic than that? Now I’m not talking about just ONE line, it was the whole book!

The prose was riddled with such cliché and clunky descriptions you can only turn your nose up at them. It was clumsy and lazy, like this had been thought up in two minutes and regurgitated it on the page without editing or revision whatsoever. It was super simplistic like it had been purposely dumbed down because we’re just too stupid to get it. Get the fuck outta here!

The whole tone and mood of this thing was so juvenile, infantile, and superficial I just wanted to scream. Plot points and arcs, and character development were not introduced smoothly, they were just thrown in abruptly without any sort of gradual transition that it was so jarring and we’re left to actually believe this was possible. Everything is what you see is what you get with this book. There is no commentary or searching for depth. It’s all drama, angst, and dumb teenage hijinks ramped up to a near unbelievable level.

CHARACTERS

None of them made sense! I’m serious! All right, so we have Izzie, right? She’s superficial, shallow, and pretty damn dumb. She believes in outcasting (via "exiling") and bullying other students because they just don’t fit into her standards of how people should act. She also thinks the only way anybody will be attracted to you, love you, or even pay attention to you is if you dress up and fake your entire personality to what the other person wants. Appearances are a must with her. You aren’t even on her radar unless you’re hot, perfect, gorgeous, handsome, or beautiful. Seriously.

I mean, really, these statements from her are telling:

Just because she’s as strong as a guy doesn’t mean she has to dress like one.

Maybe some people would say that it wasn’t my place to decide who Branna should be in love with. But it wasn't like she was doing a good job of this on her own. I was the one who had the perfect boyfriend, so I figured that gave me the right to make things perfect for my friend.

WTF is this shit? STFU. A person can dress however they like in whatever they feel comfortable in! If it’s jeans and a t-shirt (tomboy-ish clothing) or short skirts and fancy tops so be it! I don’t think it’s anybody’s right to tell somebody else how they should look. This is why we get all these self-conscious people who do drastic things or get plastic surgery! HELLO. And, wtf? How dare you say that just because you’re more “experienced” in relationships means you get to dictate who your friend goes out with! WTF. STFU. I SWEAR.

Not only that but she is selfish and self-centered and lacks reasoning or rationality! She totally ditches her friends for her boyfriend, ignores them, and purposely cheats on David and treats him like shit because she found her new hot boy toy, Tristan. Oh sure she likes to blame it on the dumb love potion she took but give me a fucking break! You could at least be decent to the guy who was so patient with you all those years! Just tell him what the fuck is up and let him go already. UGH. And when David told her to calm down after some crazy battle or whatever, she goes ape shit and slaps him across the face! Totally uncalled for! Don’t believe me? The proof!

"Call back," I said. "Call back and tell my mom she needs to come."

"Izzie, you need to calm down."

I slapped Mark across the face. "Call back!" I insisted.

HOLY HELLBALLS. I would not have stood for that, strung along boyfriend or not. I would have got right in her face and told her she was acting like a crazy hysterical bitch and I am not going to take her abuse like a fucking whipping boy.

Okay but enough about Izzie. How about Tristan?

Well, he can go SCREW HIMSELF. He is so annoying! We always see him as some perfect paragon; super hot, awesome bod, mysterious powers, and his undying love for the main character. WHAT-FUCKING-EVER! I swear. He is practically useless! All he does in the book is go around proclaiming how much he loves her, how much he needs her, but when it comes to actual battle time he’s so shit! I mean, what’s the big deal of having some magical powerful sword if you get your ass knocked out ASAP and make Izzie have to clean up your mess? GET REAL.

Branna? Bitch can kiss my fucking ass. First, you know, we feel sorry for her because Izzie doesn’t really consider her an actual friend, just a groupie she can use whenever she wants. But then she gets all psycho weird and plots against her friend and does TERRIBLY SHITTY things to her while still claiming she’s her best friend. She does this under the excuse that Izzie doesn’t deserve her boyfriend when should really be with her and that it’s all her fault he never looked her way.

Oh BACK THE FUCK OFF. Too damn bad he didn’t like you okay! She scored him first and if you were too chicken shit to express how much you liked him to him or your friend than don’t complain in the first place! Seriously. But then she has another 180 personality change and becomes nice and supportive later when she gets what she wants. I really don’t understand HOW she can go from one extreme to the other SO fast.

Speaking of Mark. I have NO idea wtf is up with him. Okay, so like he’s totally in love with Izzie and is such a super patient, sweet boyfriend, and I felt really bad when Izzie was cheating on him with Tristan and treating him like such shit. She purposely tried to move away from his touch claiming it felt gross and disgusting in her thoughts, and constantly put him off. But then when all hell broke loose and the truth came out and Izzie told Mark to hook up with Branna, he just DOES? With no hesitation whatsoever?

OHMYGOD, are we shitting me with this? How can you just THROW AWAY your feelings for her like nothing when you were going out for over a year and in the span of a SECOND hook up with your ex’s best friend and claim to be deeply in love with her? HOW? I just don’t understand! This does not make any sense at all. NONE! NONE I’M TELLING YOU!

ROMANCE

This sucks! HUGE BALLS! There is no gradual build up, no nothing. I am serious. It’s just a “I looked at him across the dance floor and now I’M SO IN LOVE” type of deal. I am not joking. She develops these feelings for him so fast it’s enough to give you migraines. Once you know she locked eyes with him, they were all googoogaga for each other. Forget her previous feelings about Mark. Who needs those! They just never existed at all!

The other romance pairing just can go to hell too. Yeah, it’s so not fun if all our leading characters don’t end up with someone at the end no matter how awkward or forced the pairing is. UGH. I never felt or believed any of their relationships for a second. NEVER. The added saccharine sentiments were just overkill and I wanted to choke slam somebody into a table.

How the hell did this happen? How can someone let this go and think it’s great work? I feel insulted and offended in so many ways! It’s like, they knew what’s hot in the YA genre and all the terrible tropes that have sprouted from it and decided to bang this out big time, that we’re also mindless sheep who will love everything and anything that’s being put out right now. GET REAL, PLEASE! We have brains and we know how to use them. The author better be trolling us with this book because I can’t believe she’d write this story and feel like it’s EXCELLENT material. No siree.

Beautiful cover? KISS MY FUCKING ASS! I can’t believe I fell for this. UGH. No thanks. I am raging. I think this the longest review I have ever written. Holy shits. Anyway, that’s all for my rant. I am out....more

*Using the Melody of Friday by Rebecca Black*Its Tris and Izzie, Gotta get down with Izzie. Gotta make your mind up, which boy will you taaaaake? Well, the one that's mentioned in the cover you stupid.I'm not trying hate here, but I am going to be honest. Here I go:

Reading Tris and Izzie was like listening to Rebecca Black's Friday, I was constantly stopping and asking myself, seriously? this is for real? I mean, seriously?? There were scenes that I guess were meant to be scary and to get my hea*Using the Melody of Friday by Rebecca Black*Its Tris and Izzie, Gotta get down with Izzie. Gotta make your mind up, which boy will you taaaaake? Well, the one that's mentioned in the cover you stupid.I'm not trying hate here, but I am going to be honest. Here I go:

Reading Tris and Izzie was like listening to Rebecca Black's Friday, I was constantly stopping and asking myself, seriously? this is for real? I mean, seriously?? There were scenes that I guess were meant to be scary and to get my heart racing, but all I kept thinking was that it was so so so... stupid. I know it's harsh, but it really came out as dumb.

I thought the characters were inconsistent and Izzie was just very irrational and selfish. All I wanted to yell at Izzie was to stop!

The novel circled around the good subject of Love and it tried to portray good points about what Love is, but I just think that it wasn't executed properly, because I really did saw potential, I strongly think that if the author had written the book in a slightly different way and probably re-invented Izzie, the novel could have reached a much higher level. Sadly, this was not the case, and the real result was a crappy novel.

Thanks to Netgalley I saved a few dollars, since the cover is so gorgeous, I'm sure I would have bought it without thinking.

Took me Forever to read it. I guess that if you liked Friday by Rebecca Black, this is for you. If not then.... just don't get close to it O.O

If I dislike a book that much, a review can easily turn into a rant which isn’t helpful for anyone, or particularly fair to the author, so I’m going to try to exactly explain why I disliked Tris and Izzie. I have to be honest and say the main reason is simply that I found it to be very poorly written.

The narration was child-like, disjointed and repetitive, I think at one point the word ‘magic’ was used around seven times within two short paragraphs. There are several battle scenes but there wasIf I dislike a book that much, a review can easily turn into a rant which isn’t helpful for anyone, or particularly fair to the author, so I’m going to try to exactly explain why I disliked Tris and Izzie. I have to be honest and say the main reason is simply that I found it to be very poorly written.

The narration was child-like, disjointed and repetitive, I think at one point the word ‘magic’ was used around seven times within two short paragraphs. There are several battle scenes but there was no sense of build up or tension and the action wasn’t well written. I never felt any fear for the characters, mainly because I didn’t connect with any of them, but also because any danger they found themselves in was brief and too easily resolved.

Another issue was that the main protagonist was vapid and plain unlikable. The story is narrated from Izzie’s point of view and I honestly felt like I was reading some naive, vindictive child’s thoughts. Mel, a guy at school, annoys Izzie (she doesn’t like his jokes but other than that it doesn’t appear that he’s ever really spoken to her), so she is resolved to get her boyfriend (the most popular guy in school) to ‘exile’ him. No one will speak to him or be friends with him, without their permission. She also thinks her best friend, Branna, needs a boyfriend, and so, disregarding the fact that a love potion can never be reversed, she decides she to slip one to her friend and the new guy, effectively taking away any romantic choice from Branna for the rest of her life.

There’s nothing wrong at all with having a unlikeable lead character, if you have a quality piece of writing that can pull it off and that just isn’t the case here. Izzie’s character was less interfering by the end of the story, though I can’t say she matures in any way, rather she is more preoccupied with Tristan, and the scenes between them get sappier and more overblown as the book progresses.

Overall, there was little, to no, character development at all as far as I could see. I can’t really tell you anything about Tristan other than he has really blonde, almost white, hair, he’s supposedly a warrior (though we see very little evidence of this, nor do we learn anything about his powers), he speaks like a Victorian gentleman and is besotted with Izzie from the first moment he sees her. I didn’t get a feel for any of the characters whatsoever and so didn’t care what happened to them. None of them were realistic in any way. Some really bizarre things happen in this book but nobody bats an eyelid.

The dialogue was stilted and just plain awkward to read, particularly Tristan’s (few) lines. The plot was all over the place and was ridiculous in places (the story of how her parents met comes to mind, among other things), while making little sense in others.

(view spoiler)[Magic I can believe in. I can even believe (just) in a giant serpent demanding annual virgin sacrifices if a book is well written, has great characters and solid world-building. Tris and Izzie, sadly, lacked any of this and I was left exasperated, annoyed and faintly amused for the most part. (hide spoiler)]

To be honest, I’m unimpressed – which is a real shame as I was looking forward to this one and was so excited to see it on NetGalley. But it just reads like (bad) fanfiction. Other than the names and the elements of magic, I don’t know that you could really call this a retelling of the story of Tristan and Isolde. Young readers will probably be able to look past most of these issues for a quick, easy read, (though the age of the characters and the emphasis on ‘true love’ makes me think it is intended for older teenagers), but I think anyone over 12 will be probably be disappointed.

The cover, however, is absolutely gorgeous.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>...more

When I found out this book was up for review on NetGalley, I immediately snapped it up because I’ve always been a massive fan of the story ‘Tristan and Isolde’.....however, I can honestly say I’m definitely not a fan of this book.

Izzie is a witch, a young witch who doesn’t really understand or know how to us her powers. She’s happily dating Mark, the captain of the Basketball team but when new boy Tristan starts school, she can’t hPosted on: http://bookpassionforlife.blogspot.com

***Spoilers***

When I found out this book was up for review on NetGalley, I immediately snapped it up because I’ve always been a massive fan of the story ‘Tristan and Isolde’.....however, I can honestly say I’m definitely not a fan of this book.

Izzie is a witch, a young witch who doesn’t really understand or know how to us her powers. She’s happily dating Mark, the captain of the Basketball team but when new boy Tristan starts school, she can’t help think there’s something about him. While trying to pair her best friend Brangane and Tristan together, Izzie steals a love potion from her mother and tries to get both Brangane and Tristan to drink it. But when Izzie accidently drinks it with Tristan, it leaves them bound together, falling in love and throwing them into the world of magic.

Firstly, don’t let the blurb fool you. This book sounds totally to die for but guess what, it’s not. Tris and Izzie is supposed to be a modern re-telling of the German fairy tale but the only thing that was slightly similar to the original story was the names of the characters and Tristan’s wasn’t even his proper name. To say the least I was more than a little disappointed with this story.

I had seen a few negative reviews around before starting this book, so I did try and not let them affect my opinion on the story but it was so hard when you completely agree with the other people. The story was not well developed, the characters were not well developed and the story was, in my opinion poorly written. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an expert books but when I look at some of the other books I’ve read over the past few months and compare then, I can definitely spot the faults.

Izzie as a character, I found to be quiet annoying. Mostly, all the way through with her match making and then her feelings towards Tristan. She tries to fight her feelings but after taking the love potion their romance is pretty instant which I didn’t like because it didn’t feel right. There was no suspense and then suddenly Tristan is declaring his love for Izzie but yet she is still in love with Mark. She refuses to listen to the advice that people around her have given and pretty much sends Tristan away as soon as she realises there’s something more going on. Only then to change her mind two seconds later once trouble arises.

The second issue I had was with Izzie and Mark who are supposed to be in true love so they claim. However, as soon as Mark realises that Brangane is in love with him, with the snap of your fingers their suddenly declaring their love for one another and Izzie is giving her blessing. It was honestly done within seconds and it was so totally unrealistic. Then there’s Tristan, strong and handsome Tristan. Who all we actually really know about him is he has snow white hair and his name isn’t actually Tristan. The way his character comes across in the book, it totally out of place, his accent and way he talks, I just didn’t get it and he’s one character that just didn’t do anything for me.

And finally, the magic in the story was another thing that felt out of place. You’re introduced to a magic community and demons that aren’t interesting and aren’t developed enough to make you truly understand the story. In the end, I’d read three quarters of the book and skipped to the last page to see what happens. I just couldn’t read it any longer.

Thinking back on the story now, it may suit a younger audience. An audience that isn’t going to want to much detail, maybe the age range of 11 – 16 years old but this book definitely wasn’t for over 16 year olds.

Thank you NetGalley and Egmont for giving me to the opportunity to review this book....more

A painfully amateurish effort that reads like the roughest of first drafts. The YA equivalent of join-the-dots, only requiring less effort than that activity. The writing is childish and reeks desperately of wanting to sound authentically teen but fails miserably. It honestly reminded me of a story written by a primary school child, where every element is recited in the simplest and clunkiest manner. The romance elements were handled even more clumsily, leaving me with less than no sympathy forA painfully amateurish effort that reads like the roughest of first drafts. The YA equivalent of join-the-dots, only requiring less effort than that activity. The writing is childish and reeks desperately of wanting to sound authentically teen but fails miserably. It honestly reminded me of a story written by a primary school child, where every element is recited in the simplest and clunkiest manner. The romance elements were handled even more clumsily, leaving me with less than no sympathy for the characters who were annoying to begin with. I may write a more eloquent review later on but it doesn't feel right to waste my time on something so pointless. Don't waste your time either. ...more

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS EXTREMELY COARSE LANGUAGE, BUT REALLY, IN COMPARISON TO THE WRITING IN THIS BOOK, IT'S NOT SO BAD. IN ANY CASE, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED FOR BOTH THIS REVIEW - DUE TO TO SAID STRONG LANGUAGE, AND THE BOOK - DUE TO DISMAL WRITING TECHNIQUES.

PLEASE REMEMBER: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED - ON BOTH ACCOUNTS.

***SIGH***

***SIGH again***

***another SIGH***

I would cry a trillion tears if I actually gave a shit about this book.

Can I just say: WHAT A FUCKING DISAPPOINTMENT!?!?!WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS EXTREMELY COARSE LANGUAGE, BUT REALLY, IN COMPARISON TO THE WRITING IN THIS BOOK, IT'S NOT SO BAD. IN ANY CASE, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED FOR BOTH THIS REVIEW - DUE TO TO SAID STRONG LANGUAGE, AND THE BOOK - DUE TO DISMAL WRITING TECHNIQUES.

PLEASE REMEMBER: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED - ON BOTH ACCOUNTS.

***SIGH***

***SIGH again***

***another SIGH***

I would cry a trillion tears if I actually gave a shit about this book.

Can I just say: WHAT A FUCKING DISAPPOINTMENT!?!?! What a perfectly good waste of 3 hours of my life that I will NEVER get back again? If this book was shit (literally, because it already is figuratively) you would need a fire ladder to get THAT high. In fact, you wouldn't even think someone could pile shit THAT high, but let me tell you, this book does it with absolutely no qualms.

I shall begin with a comparison:

Tris and Izzie is like decorative fruit. It looks exactly like the real thing: gorgeous, plump and ripe with possibilities. But what happens when you take a bite out of decorative fruit? You find out its fake. A measly imposter if you will that leaves a horrible taste in your mouth. It’s like that cheese: you know the one that comes in individually wrapped pieces of plastic all special like and does a good impression of the real thing? But in reality when it hits your taste buds you realize it tastes like crap? It’s the chocolate you know you shouldn’t have, but it just looks SO tempting so you eat it anyways without thinking of the consequences.

It is the mother of all temptation, the queen of seduction, the greatest disguise ever seen. THE BOOK IS THE FUCKING DEVIL.

It was essentially all dialogue with characters that had absolutely NOTHING worth of value to say. Just clumsy lines with explanations on anything and everything that ultimately sounded really unnatural and artificial.

The worst part? Characterization! Oh, it was horrible.

Izzie: was a mess. She was just a tangled web of a character that had no personality whatsoever. She was the main character, but I learnt more about all the other characters from her POV than I did about her. All I found out about her was that she had no morals when it came to her relationships (kissing one guy with her boyfriend in the immediate vicinity), was completely clueless and self-absorbed (how do you not notice your BFF is in love with your boyfriend) and that she was way too bossy. Her relationship with Branna her best friend, was just appalling. It was like they were Siamese twins trying to walk in 2 different directions.

Tristan / Tantris / Tris: was extremely random. He didn’t feel like a real person to me and his relationships with the other characters was just awkward. He also seemed to have a name problem where he had multiple names and answered to pretty much anything that confused me to no end. At one point I thought he was 3 different people. His and Izzie’s relationship wasn’t even a relationship, it was just a bunch of inappropriately timed kisses and “I love you’s” thrown around when the plot line needed a change.

Branna: was a pretentious bitch that appeared to have a psychological problem. It was like she had dissociative identity disorder (aka multiple personality disorder). She started off kind of shy and silent with nothing to say. But out of nowhere she was bitching to Izzie about how horrible a friend she was, and then a minute later she was her best friend again, full of loyalty and self-sacrifice. 2 minutes after that she was acting slutty and making out with Mel and then 5 minutes would pass and she was declaring her love to Mark and being all kissy-kissy and perfect. Plus, her supposed love for Mark came off as jealousy to me. After they got together it was just physical and she didn’t really show any strong emotions for him.

Mark: was a bit too feminine for my liking. He was the most emotional character in the novel (and for a book that lacked any true emotion at all, that’s not saying much). He was sappy, whipped, had no personal goals and was all in all extremely boring which made him really unlikeable and not at all attractive. And he was so gag-me-with-an-artificial-sweetener-already cheesy. But the thing I hated most about him was his relationship with Izzie. They were more together after they broke up than when they were actually together. As her boyfriend he had a bit of pervert moment, but after they were done he seemed more caring and nicer to her than he ever was with Branna.

What makes this so upsetting is that I had high expectations for this book. I would have been fine if it hadn’t made them, but the degree as to how much this book sucked crap is huge.

And so I leave you with this statement:

This book just sucked on all counts except for the cover. I mean IT SUCKED BIG VACUUM.

A quote which pretty much displays how horrible this book was:

I can’t subject anyone to a quote. That would just be plain cruel....more

Reginalol i think what i like about this book is your review it cracked me up so much i think i wanna read it just out of morbid curiosity. if it were everlol i think what i like about this book is your review it cracked me up so much i think i wanna read it just out of morbid curiosity. if it were ever free or in the library ill give it a whirl but im not buying this....more
Oct 09, 2011 02:13AM

I've been trying to figure out a way to describe the overall problem with this book in how the story came across and I finally think I've got it. Bear with me.

Have you ever listened to young girls playing dress-up? They are happy and energetic so everything is overlaid with that girlish energy. It often goes something like this:

"We're princesses! And we're sad because the evil dragon killed our father," says Girl #1 with a big smile on her face."And we have to find Prince Charming to kill the drI've been trying to figure out a way to describe the overall problem with this book in how the story came across and I finally think I've got it. Bear with me.

Have you ever listened to young girls playing dress-up? They are happy and energetic so everything is overlaid with that girlish energy. It often goes something like this:

"We're princesses! And we're sad because the evil dragon killed our father," says Girl #1 with a big smile on her face."And we have to find Prince Charming to kill the dragon!" adds Girl #2, grinning. "We both meet handsome princes and they love us more than anything—""But one of them is married to an evil witch!" interjects Girl #1 giddily."And we help them kill her and then we're all happy but my prince tells me he loves you and your prince tells you he loves me—""And we realize that we loved them more the whole time too!""And then our mom dies and we're sad," Girl #2 adds exuberantly.

And so on.

This is the problem with Tris & Izzie. Almost every aspect of character, relationship and emotion was told to the reader, not shown, even when there were great opportunities to build it into to story. Also, like with the little girls playing dress-up, everything was delivered in the same emotional tone by the narrator, Izzie. Her reactions and emotions didn't fluctuate, whether she was talking about a pretty dress or her best friend being mortally wounded.

Regarding all of the characters, none of them were believable because they were just place-fillers throughout. Never once did I get a sense of actual character (i.e. motivations, personality traits, behaviors), and nothing about the story made me sympathize, empathize, or root for them. She does however succeed in making me dislike almost everyone because of the limited actions and behaviors we do get to see during the story. Izzie doesn't even feel like a real person and she is the one telling the story. None of her supposed emotional attachments and bonds with others actually rang true, and her narrative was at best disorganized and irrelevant, at worst painful to read.

The narrative had the randomness of stream-of-consciousness but none of the intention required to master a style like that, and I never got the impression that Harrison was trying to create that feel. All it effectively did was create a giant disconnect between the narrator and what was happening in the story, and therefor a giant disconnect between the narrator and the reader. I think the reason this was such an issue is that Harrison didn't create a genuine, whole character in Izzie.

Half the time her thoughts were severely juvenile and selfish, even for a 16 year old (to the extent that I was genuinely offended on behalf of myself and every person who is, was, or will be a teen girl), and the other half of the time her inner monologue sounded like an adult parent who has completely forgotten she was ever a teen, much less what it's like to think and act as a teen. Her inner monologue was also repetitive (in an inartistic way) and contradictory (not in a cognitively dissonant way).

All of the dialogue was pointless in terms of progressing the story (either through character development, relationship building, or plot progression), and was mostly a bunch of trite nonsense that sounds nothing like how people actually speak. A lot of the time the subject of the conversation didn't even coincide with the conversation thread. Characters said things that made no sense or drew conclusions that had no support in motivation or behavior. It felt like a very failed attempt at generating emotional angst and was far too little too late.

The plot really only related to the story of Tristan & Isolde in that she retained character names and there was a love potion. (view spoiler)[[Although it's not really a love potion. we're just supposed to believe that Tristan and Izzie fall head over heels immediately. And I do mean IMMEDIATELY.] (hide spoiler)] Everything else about the plot was dysfunctional and clumsy. A lot of the things occurring were pointless or unfounded. Nothing seemed to derive from a necessity or logical process of getting from point A to point B. The story completely lacked an atmosphere and setting all together. I never had any idea what anything looked like or felt like around the characters. There wasn't even much character description to be honest. The prose was like talking to a vapid, spoiled girl who suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder. Any attempt at emotional expression came across as awkward and clunky because it didn't feel authentic.

When building (and I stress the word building here because it does take a good foundation and work) a paranormal world writers have to give the reader a reason to buy into a suspension of beliefs. It has to swallow the reader whole so that when the really crazy, fantastical stuff comes out, it seems perfectly normal inside that world for the reader. Harrison asks her readers to just buy the whole magic concept (with a very sloppy and almost nonexistent lore), trust a heroine who is unbelievable as a real character to begin with AND selfish AND disrespectful of other people AND disregards the importance of making LIFETIME IRREVERSIBLE DECISIONS FOR OTHER PEOPLE ON A WHIM, and believe in love at first sight (with no established emotional connection to any of the characters) (view spoiler)[ who, by the way, swap relationships in the course of a couple days (when two of them have dated for over a year and were like, "so in love") and have no emotional concern or reaction to it. They just all become best friends! ::blank stare:: (hide spoiler)] I can't really go on any more because there isn't an end and I would have to spoil a lot.

Ultimately this was a huge train wreck for me. Sloppy writing and plot. Undefined/unbelievable characters. Ridiculous attempts at manufactured angst. And really the ending was very anticlimactic.

(this book was provided by the publisher through netgalley)["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>...more

I was excited about this book. Look at the cover, it’s beautiful and romantic. The story is supposed to be a retelling of the German folk tale Tristan and Isolde which I’ve heard of but I didn’t actually know the storyline. I was very interested in it though because I am German.So you can guess how happy I was when this popped up pre-release-date on Netgalley. Unfortunately I had to put it down after 9 chapters (which equals 75 pages which equals about 30% of the book). I have twoDid not finish

I was excited about this book. Look at the cover, it’s beautiful and romantic. The story is supposed to be a retelling of the German folk tale Tristan and Isolde which I’ve heard of but I didn’t actually know the storyline. I was very interested in it though because I am German.So you can guess how happy I was when this popped up pre-release-date on Netgalley. Unfortunately I had to put it down after 9 chapters (which equals 75 pages which equals about 30% of the book). I have two big problems that forced me to spend my precious reading time on worthier books.

Reason number one is the main character Izzie. She’s supposed to be 16 but she acts like a 12 year old. Izzie annoyed me to no end. She is selfish, arrogant, stupid, childish and has a very limited horizon. Examples? Here you go:Her best friend Branna tells her about this guy Mel who supposedly uses magic. Izzie doesn’t like that (because her mom is a witch and told her to always keep magic a secret), so she decides that her boyfriend Mark (the most popular guy in school) will exclude Mel from their clique. Mark has that power, if he doesn’t talk to Mel, soon no one will.Next Izzie tries to find a boyfriend for her friend Branna (who is very tall and athletic and yearns for a boyfriend and the love experience). Izzie decides that a love potion will work best. She tells Branna about it but the girl refuses the offer, she wants a boy to fall for her because of her, not because of a potion. Izzie doesn’t care. She prepares a potion anyway and tries to get Branna to drink it. Then we meet Tristan who is the new guy at Izzie’s school (and he talks really weird, I have no idea why). Izzie dislikes him right away (why?) but decides that he would make a good boyfriend for Branna. What? Exactly.

The other problem I had with the book was the magical aspect. I don’t mind magic in books, not at all but first of all I didn’t expect it here. I thought part of the retelling would be to get rid of any irrational explanation. I could’ve gone with the whole magic storyline if it hadn’t felt so… ridiculous. Izzies mom is a witch but Izzie doesn’t have any magic in her (or so she thinks), later a two-headed dog arrives, trying to kill Izzie… and that’s where I stopped.

If you want to buy this to put it on your shelf where it can look pretty, go ahead! If you’re looking for a sweet/romantic/fun retelling of Tristan and Isolde, look somewhere else....more

Know how your mom told you that "you can't judge a book by its cover"? That's exactly the way I feel about Tris and Izzie. You've seen the cover, right? It's beautiful. I just think that it would be even better if the cover had something to do with the contents of the book.

Maybe that's just me.

Enough about the cover--I guess I should tell you what I thought of the book. First of all, if I could give this zero stars, I would. I found it to be incoherent at best, not to mention condescending. IKnow how your mom told you that "you can't judge a book by its cover"? That's exactly the way I feel about Tris and Izzie. You've seen the cover, right? It's beautiful. I just think that it would be even better if the cover had something to do with the contents of the book.

Maybe that's just me.

Enough about the cover--I guess I should tell you what I thought of the book. First of all, if I could give this zero stars, I would. I found it to be incoherent at best, not to mention condescending. I would have flounced well before page 63, but I wanted to believe that there would be something--anything--that I found redeemable about the characters or the ill-contrived plot.

Don't get me wrong--I'm sure Mette Ivie Harrison is a lovely person, and judging by all of the wonderful reviews she's gotten for her previous works, she must be a good writer. So I don't know what the hell happened with this book.

Like Anna said in her review, I feel "I was genuinely offended on behalf of myself and every person who is, was, or will be a teen girl." Is this book really representative of what readers (and by extension, the general population) think about the inner musings of teenage girls? That they are all vapid, shallow self-centered people, focused solely on their attire and who their boyfriend is? I'm not kidding--I'm shocked at the acceptance of this notion. It's disgusting, to be honest, and I seriously want to talk to all of the people who gave this book five stars. Maybe they could point out the epic love story and amazingness that I totally missed.

Isolde was hot and cold, fickle-minded, and downright shallow. Her thought process wasn't even as developed as the average ten year old. She had such potential to be someone and do something--yet, she always had her attire or the way her butt looked in her shorts to allow us any connection to her character. She whined. She blamed everyone else for everything that was happening to her. Her fight with her best friend was epically stupid, and she had almost no reaction whatsoever to the prospect of almost losing her. The other characters fell flat for me, except perhaps the giant. Tristan was weak and cold and their relationship seemed forced--literally.

In case you think that I couldn't find anything--not one little thing--to point out that I liked about this book, well, you're almost right. But there was one part of dialogue that I enjoyed:

"Do you burn for me?"

"A volcano."

That's all I've got, folks. It depresses me that I wasted my time reading this, and really, I hope you won't make the same mistake....more

EmilyWas gonna read this one next. Might skim it then give it to my sister. After all, her reaction to Kasey Anthony was "she was too pretty to go to jail,Was gonna read this one next. Might skim it then give it to my sister. After all, her reaction to Kasey Anthony was "she was too pretty to go to jail, shell make a better prostitute". #omghowarewerelated...more
Jul 09, 2011 04:06PM

CaroYou're even adorable when you get mad, lol. I really wanted to read this book, but from most of the reviews, it seems this one stayed as a promise thaYou're even adorable when you get mad, lol. I really wanted to read this book, but from most of the reviews, it seems this one stayed as a promise that couldn't be delivred. Boo....more
Jul 19, 2011 05:50PM

How can you be appalled at a book by just reading over someone's shoulder? If the plot doesn't sound stupid enough, the writing matches. It's been said that this reeks of fictionpress, but I've seen more intriguing storylines and prose on fanfictionnet.

I feel the author's pain, though. I get nostalgic when I look at this book. It's like what I used to write.

The stars you see above are due mainly to the beautiful cover and sporadic moments of me actually laughing at what came out of Izzie's mouth.

It's characters, none did I like. Izzie is self absorbed and totally unaware of everyone else around her. Her bestfriend is scheming and blames everyone else for her troubles. Tristan sounds robotic, (but at least there's a reason for that). And Marc whom I thought was going to be one of the better parts of tBeautiful cover, you have misled me... again!!!

The stars you see above are due mainly to the beautiful cover and sporadic moments of me actually laughing at what came out of Izzie's mouth.

It's characters, none did I like. Izzie is self absorbed and totally unaware of everyone else around her. Her bestfriend is scheming and blames everyone else for her troubles. Tristan sounds robotic, (but at least there's a reason for that). And Marc whom I thought was going to be one of the better parts of the books does something that I find unexcusable.

Specifically, Izzie is so clueless that by chapter four she still couldn't get it wrapped around her head that (view spoiler)[her BFF was in love with her BF. (hide spoiler)] She's so secure in the thought that everyone wanted her to be happy. Oh puh-lease! I wanted to shake her! When Tristan finally appeared, both his too formal ways and oh-so-good looks rubbed her the wrong way, and simultaneously made her want him. Talk about contrary! And she slaps people a lot. Tristan is the dark brooding hero, but reads ROBOTIC. I felt no connection to any of them!

It's plot predictable: Everything said and done seems to be said and done because it's the thing to do. Puppets, that's what come to mind, with the marionette pulling strings of one puppet to do/say one thing then pulling another set to get another to say something in response. All this leading to a rather obvious conclusion. Obvious to me at least, because NONE (Izzie, in particular) of the characters could see past their noses!

And there's potential unfulfilled. A retelling of Tristan & Isolde, give me some of that, right? In truth, the similarity lies in the names alone.

*The bits that had me chuckling were all due to skimming: "I had spatter of invinciblity potion on my shirt," and I go, "How'd she manage that?" I had to look twice because I swear I thought it read invisibility. At this point I'd been skimming the galley AND listening an old SVU episode. Guess which kept my attention.

I stopped reading at page 58 when this quote came up: '"And you can't say he doesn't have a good butt. You know what the human butt was made for? Running. And I bet it would be great to watch him run."'

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

And then, of course, here are some other disastrous lines:

Page 59: 'I wanted to jump between them and kick Branna in the teeth.'

She just seems reallyI stopped reading at page 58 when this quote came up: '"And you can't say he doesn't have a good butt. You know what the human butt was made for? Running. And I bet it would be great to watch him run."'

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

And then, of course, here are some other disastrous lines:

Page 59: 'I wanted to jump between them and kick Branna in the teeth.'

Oh boy. I couldn't get through this one at all, though I tried extremely hard. I love the original legend of Tristan and Isolde, and when I saw the blurb here on goodreads (and later on netgalley), I thought "yay! A fairy tale retold! Magical reality! Hell yeah!" and so forth, and requested it.

I was severely disappointed, in so many aspects. Usually, if a book is well-written enough, I can ignore character flaws (or the fact that I didn't like them, period) because I understand that A) there's uOh boy. I couldn't get through this one at all, though I tried extremely hard. I love the original legend of Tristan and Isolde, and when I saw the blurb here on goodreads (and later on netgalley), I thought "yay! A fairy tale retold! Magical reality! Hell yeah!" and so forth, and requested it.

I was severely disappointed, in so many aspects. Usually, if a book is well-written enough, I can ignore character flaws (or the fact that I didn't like them, period) because I understand that A) there's usually a reason why we make a character unlikeable when we write them and B) the well-written parts more than likely than not overcome whatever characters I just couldn't like.

I reread some of my old texts that I had lying about on Tristan and Isolde, just to make sure I wasn't overreacting - I wasn't. In some versions, yes, Isolde is incredibly selfish and gives Tristan the love potion so that she bewitches him instead of Mark, and in Beroul's version (closer to the 12th century), the love potion wears off after 3 years, which frees both parties and leaves it up to them to decide whether or not to continue their relationship. This legend isn't about starcrossed lovers, but it is the basis of what will later become the "courtly" love dilemma (aka the Arthurian love triangle of Guenivere-Arthur-Lancelot), and questions what is the right thing to do in such a situation - do you go ahead and do your job, which is bringing the girl to your uncle to marry? Or do you allow yourself to become trapped by the love potion, even if you don't know about it? I understand that this is a modern retelling. I also understand that the target audience has forgotten about (if they were taught at all) the original story, which is what really kind of makes this story all the worse - using that ignorance to its own advantage to try to make the story its own.

I'm all for retellings, even if they fail. I'm all for remaking an old tale into your own, even if you just use the original as base material to build your story upon. But this really can't be called a retelling. It may use the idea of bewitched lovers as base material, but that in of itself is a concentrated, distilled idea of what the original story of "Tristan and Isolde" is all about. And when you do a retelling, you don't use ignorance of the original to build your story. That's just doing the original a severe injustice and gives the new generation the entirely wrong idea of what the original was about. Instead, I'm of the school of thought that you should at least tell them about the original in some way or another before making it your own - not keep them in the dark about it.

That aside, the technical points: the writing is repetitive (seriously, author, one word: variation), there's far more telling than showing, and all characters are very one-dimensional - so much so that they're barely developed at all. There are so many inconsistencies that it made my head spin. There is no discernable arc for any of the characters in order to advance the plot, develop the characters, and communicate the message that the author wants the reader to take home after the book has been finished. The pacing was far too fast, and nothing was lingered upon long enough to savor and let the reader draw their own conclusions anywhere. If anything, I felt like Isolde was telling what the reader was supposed to be feeling, which is never a good thing. No decisions are final in this book for any character, which really kind of was the last straw for me. Yeah, okay, I get it, they're ensconceled with a love potion, but that doesn't mean that any choices you make (or not make) don't have lasting effects.

Teenagers are supposed to be headstrong and irresponsible, as are children. It's because they're testing the limits of how far they can go within society, trying to find boundaries both there and within themselves. That's where the old idea of an old man shaking his fist at "those darn kids" comes from. They do it so that one day they can be adults, regardless of choices good or bad, that know their own boundaries. It's just up to them whether or not they cross them or not.

But unfortunately, "Tris and Izzie" has a severe case of indecision, coupled with ignorance of the original tale. I can forgive many things in a book, but with all of this and the technical details put together, I can only politely say that this wasn't the book for me, to put it mildly. But because it has the right "formula" for the current YA market (romance + paranormal), it will probably do just fine regardless of the quality of the writing.

But you might feel differently. Still, I urge you to read up on the original legend before picking up this retelling so that you too will be educated enough to tell where the "true" story ends and the rebuild begins. This might be a library read for you guys, and I can only heap praise on netgalley and Egmont USA for letting me snatch up a digital ARC copy first.

I've always loved the story of Tristan and Isolde so I was really looking forward to Tris and Izzy.I liked the general story-line, even though it was predictable, it was still fun. I also enjoyed the writing style and thought it was written at a steady flow keeping me absorbed, but when it comes down to it, I just couldn't for the life of me like any of these characters, especially Izzy. Making this a book I wanted to love to pieces but just couldn't.

The cover is by far the most appealing aspect of the mess that is Tris & Izzie.

Simply and best put: the cover is the best part of the complicated mess that is this novel. I'd heard of a few other novels by this author I have wanted to read (mostly Mira, Mirror) so when I saw this on netgalley -- with that gorgeous cover -- I couldn't wait to read it. Sadly I was disappointed and frustrated by this retelling of the classic Tristan and Isolde lRead This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

The cover is by far the most appealing aspect of the mess that is Tris & Izzie.

Simply and best put: the cover is the best part of the complicated mess that is this novel. I'd heard of a few other novels by this author I have wanted to read (mostly Mira, Mirror) so when I saw this on netgalley -- with that gorgeous cover -- I couldn't wait to read it. Sadly I was disappointed and frustrated by this retelling of the classic Tristan and Isolde legend.

The writing itself is very awkward and clunky from the beginning pages. Paragraphs like

"Mom said it was too painful to stay where all the memories were. Dad died just after I failed the test for magic that was supposed to figure out what kind I had. I guess magic can skip a generation or even fade out completely. No one knows the reason, but that's why there's less magic in the world now than there used to be. It's hard to live without magic surrounded by people who do, Mom says."

are prevalent and just as heavy-handed and meandering (this is on page 12, where the author is explaining her life now she has moved and then randomly we're learning about the state of magic in her world) throughout the entire story.

There's a LOT of exposition early on in order to catch the reader up to speed with the events and principles of this particular world. Rather than show the audience anything, every last detail is explained in monotonous dialogue or the vapid inner monologue like that quoted above of the main character, Izzie.

Izzie, or rather Isolde as she's called only by her angst-magnet Tristan, is not a character I cared about very much. Vapid, vain and entirely too boy-crazy to accurately represent a girl I'd like, Izzie is pretty clueless to top it all off. When warned by her witch mother Gwen (multiple times, over many years with her own life as an example of a true love philtre gone wrong) Izzie DRINKS a real love potion intended for another instead of you know, spilling it and thus making her fall in love with someone other than her 'perfect' boyfriend of a year. And then, after Izzie knowingly stole said potion with its intent and accuracy, and put it in a bottle of Sprite for two people who had NO IDEA what she was doing, and then took it herself, she COMPLAINS ABOUT THE RESULT. (Girl. YOU DID THIS. You were going to take two people who did not know each other and make them obsessively love each for all time and then when it backfires, YOU DRINK IT AND COMPLAIN? Are you kidding me.) Instead of ruining someone else's life (her ahem best friend was the target...) Izzie ruined her own. Instead of inspiring sympathy from me, I felt it was justified for a girl so supercilious as to decide who should fall in love without any awareness of that fact.

Speaking of Izzie's best friend and perfect boyfriend, all the characters in this felt very wooden, and fairly bland. None sparkled with individuality or flair; Mark, her original boyfriend, was so unassumingly bland I forgot Isolde was supposed to be conflicted half the time. And while these are supposed to be teens in high school, the conversations and overly-loaded dialogue felt way out of place. Izzie casually mentions Mark "the king of the school" (also, real subtle allusion to the real story, there) willing to "exile" another classmate for offending Izzie. I'm sorry, but teenagers do not talk that way. It's unrealistic and laughable, not to mention anachronistic for a generation unconcerned with history.

The plotting is glacial and very hard to get through. The odd moments of humor (Tristan to Isolde: "You see things" Isolde: "What, dead people?!") were intermittent, and while I did find them occasionally humorous, it wasn't enough to save my failing opinion of the style of this novel. I just cannot support a novel that has 16 year old teenagers discussing how they have found their soulmate, and how perfect him/her they are at length. The constant back-and-forth tugging between Tristan and Mark was extremely wearying, especially since I did not care who the author went with in the end: a fresh ending with a new twist or a new take on the old familiar. I just did not care.

Clearly this is a predictable story, one that has been told many times by many different people for a long, long time. But sadly, here in this novel, I saw little to distinguish from any other genre, run-of-the-mill retelling. I had hoped for an individualistic and clever take of forbidden love in a modern age, and instead I got genre popcorn. 1/5 and just not for me. ...more

The idea of the story is really interesting. I see that people are curious about how the story is going to be as a modern retelling of the Tristan and Isolde legend. It’s about Izzie who lives normally with her mother since her dad has died. She has a good life, a loving mother, a popular boyfriend and a best friend that she can share every secret with. Then suddenly her life turns upside down after she met Tristan. She falls in love with Tris, then she finds out the truth about her magical abilThe idea of the story is really interesting. I see that people are curious about how the story is going to be as a modern retelling of the Tristan and Isolde legend. It’s about Izzie who lives normally with her mother since her dad has died. She has a good life, a loving mother, a popular boyfriend and a best friend that she can share every secret with. Then suddenly her life turns upside down after she met Tristan. She falls in love with Tris, then she finds out the truth about her magical ability and some facts she never knew before.

I wanted to like the whole story but I couldn’t. I found some significant turn-offs in it. There are some parts that make the story quite disturbing. For example, I think the process of Tris and Izzie fall for each other is too fast. Even if they use love potion, there should be logic about it – the more when it is proved to be not a love potion. It’s like no explanation of how things are going on, they just happen and then DONE, PERIOD!!!

As well with Mark and Branna, who happened to be Izzie’s boyfriend and best friend. I think it is just strange that in the beginning Mark shows a lot of love and affection to Izzie then the next day he can just go on with Branna without any doubt. Like nothing has ever happened. Well, it’s not impossible but then it seems like the chapter is forced to be finished soon so the story can go on to the next phase.

While some moments are like skipped to be told, some are like prolonged. I noticed how Izzie kills the giant so easily but then the process takes too long time and causes too much disaster. The long part doesn’t even tell in detail about how Izzie finally manages to use her magic. Instead, there are some less important details being told.

Another strange part of the story is during the fight with the magical creature. I wonder how come at the thrilling and critical moment, the characters still fight against each other, do stupid things and even there is a slight romance in it, kissing while fighting? Oh, I don’t get it.

There’s also some new ideas pop up out of nowhere, like taken for granted or forced to fit in. For example, about the idea that Branna may also have magical power is concluded just because that she believes in magic so easily. Also at the ending, there are some unexpected new ideas.

The characters in the story seem to be immature, despite their age. Izzie acts as what she wants without thinking more. She is also insensitive, labile and doubtful. Branna’s role seems to be dubious, sometimes she acts like a good friend, the other times she becomes a back-stabber. Mark changes so quickly, from loving to hostile, he even punches the girl he used to love. Tristan is emotional, has a different way of thinking and romantic in a strange way. One thing in common, they all never know what to do about many things, even about their own abilities.

To be honest, I never knew the Tristan and Isolde legend. But before reading this book, I tried to browse a bit about it so to have an idea of how it is. Although there are many versions of the legend, the main theme is about romantic love and tragedy. I didn’t find this book having so much relevance with the legend. Somehow the bias goes too far and it’s like a brand new story already with just some similar names of the characters. Those names don’t even follow the characterizations of the legend.

Overall, still I think the book is quite fun and easy to read. It has a really nice cover which I adore so much. The writing style can be considered as attractive, too. It’s not boring at all that can keep the readers to continue reading. If only Harrison could stick more with the original version of the legend and write a more developed story line with good logic, maybe this book could be a potential bestseller since it has a compelling plot already...more

I have a Goodreads shelf called "don't ever read ever ever ever". I don't add books to it unless they are TERRIBLE.In fact, of all the books I haven't liked in the last 3 years, I haven't had to add one.Until now.Gosh that was awful. I don't mean to be rude, but WOW. :/ *cringe*

As I read the first fifty pages (forty-eight, to be exact), I couldn’t help but notice that something was missing and completely off. I had to really think about this, and I’ve come to the conclusion there were a few things that might’ve made me lose my interest:

1. The voice. The entire time I read this, I felt like Izzie was in middle school. She didn’t have that standout YA voice like a lot of books**ARC Courtesy of Netgalley

The only redeeming portion of this book is its cover, unfortunately.

As I read the first fifty pages (forty-eight, to be exact), I couldn’t help but notice that something was missing and completely off. I had to really think about this, and I’ve come to the conclusion there were a few things that might’ve made me lose my interest:

1. The voice. The entire time I read this, I felt like Izzie was in middle school. She didn’t have that standout YA voice like a lot of books out there right now. Instead, hers was whiny and pulled the I’m-better-than-you vibe more than once, which is something I absolutely loathe. Give me a great voice and I’m hooked for the rest of story.

At times, Izzie would just yell (or what seemed like yelling) at Branna. And when she first met Tristan? Yeaaah… She became sweaty and angry because he glanced her way a couple of times. The hell? Ignore the dude if you don’t like it, but don’t act a fool. When Izzie asked if his parents’ money ran out for private school, I wanted to beat her with a crowbar. Yes, I’m violent sometimes.

Also, Branna was this lumbering ogre who acted all Emo because she was in love with a guy who didn’t know she existed. But, because my second job is actually as THE Sherlock Holmes, I’m deducing Branna is in love with Mark, who also happens to be Izzie’s boyfriend. Am I right? Yes? Someone get me a cookie. Or tiramisu. I love tiramisu. <3

3. The setting. This probably sounds really weird, but when I read, I get a feel for the surroundings and “atmosphere” of where the book actually takes place. I didn’t feel that with this book. I had no sense of setting whatsoever. I mean, I knew they were in school one minute and the next Izzie was at home, but that was it. Nothing was described. There was more narrative about Izzie’s mom’s magical capabilities than there was dialogue or description.

Sadly, I have to agree with the other negative reviews. I typically don’t let reviews hinder my decision-making when it comes to how I feel about books, but I couldn’t get into this one. However, since this book has already received its fair share of negativity, I’m not going to rate it.

I would recommend this to readers of a younger age. I could see this being a middle grade novel instead of YA. ...more

If you are 13 and have no knowledge of the legend of Tristan and Iseult there is a chance that you may like this book. But it’s probably a very, very slim chance. This book was quite possibly the biggest let-down of my reading year, maybe because I had some seriously high hopes for it.

Nevermind the fact that the book makes a mockery of the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Iseult (Isolde) or that the plot jumps around more than a sleep deprived, over-caffeinated teenager, but the characters in thiIf you are 13 and have no knowledge of the legend of Tristan and Iseult there is a chance that you may like this book. But it’s probably a very, very slim chance. This book was quite possibly the biggest let-down of my reading year, maybe because I had some seriously high hopes for it.

Nevermind the fact that the book makes a mockery of the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Iseult (Isolde) or that the plot jumps around more than a sleep deprived, over-caffeinated teenager, but the characters in this are just flat out annoying. Our heroine, Izzie, is a whiny, self-indulgent child who irritated me to no end.

When Izzie makes the potion for her best friend, Branna, she makes it in the hopes of finding a true love for her best friend. But she doesn’t give the potion to a guy she knows Branna likes, or even a guy she’s known for more than five minutes. She literally meets Tristan, decides he’s open for business and basically forces the potion down Tristan’s throat. Then Branna refuses to drink, and Izzie’s boyfriend, Mark, reaches for the bottle. God-forbid Tristan and Mark fall in love, so Izzie drinks it herself.

She drinks the potion. She doesn’t simply drop it and say, “Clumsy me.” She drinks the potion knowing full-well what will happen, and then spends the next ten chapters complaining about it. Did I mention she didn’t even tell her best friend she was manipulating her into falling in love forever? Some friendship.

Not that Branna is much better. She is seriously the worst best friend I have ever read in a novel. And Gwen, Izzie’s mother, is quite possibly a contender for Worst Mother of the Year. When Izzie confesses she drank the potion and she and Tristan are now stuck together and Mark will be devastated, Gwen pretty much says that sucks for Izzie, but it’s not her problem. Way to help your daughter, Gwen. Kudos.

I found the romance thin and anticlimactic. The scenes where Izzie and Tristan were together gave you whiplash because Izzie threw herself at Tristan and the next page slapped him for lying to her. Uh, pot meet the kettle? The whole book was ludicrous, which is a shame because the legend of Tristan and Iseult is a great story. ...more

I have to honestly say, I went into this one after I heard some good and bad reviews and I have to agree with most bad reviews.

Usually with the characters I can connect with them and sympathize with them but Izzie is definitely not my kind of character. She is stuck up and she is so full of herself. The first thing that made me hate her was when her friend asked her if she thought she was the queen of the world and she answered with maybe and that she was the queen of the school. Who talks likeI have to honestly say, I went into this one after I heard some good and bad reviews and I have to agree with most bad reviews.

Usually with the characters I can connect with them and sympathize with them but Izzie is definitely not my kind of character. She is stuck up and she is so full of herself. The first thing that made me hate her was when her friend asked her if she thought she was the queen of the world and she answered with maybe and that she was the queen of the school. Who talks like that?

Izzie is the worst main character I have ever read. Yes, she may have grown up by the end of the book but she was still full of herself. Her friend, Branna is just as bad. I never hated characters before but those two were definitely not friends and horrible people.

My other issue was with the action. Most of the things that happen just didn't make sense or was like a flash. I didn't even know the 'bad guy' was gone until they actually said it. All the action happened quick with no warning and then ended just as fast. To me, there wasn't really a climax. It was just this small roller-coaster for little kids instead of the giant ones that older people enjoy.

I just feel that this story could have been better. Amazingly better. I was really disappointed and I didn't want to be.

***I gave this a one star rating over a year ago when I reviewed, or tried to review the arc. I'm doing the review now bc of the author behaving rudely to writers.**

Srsly one of the worst books I ever tried to read. Juvenile dialogue, read MG rather than HS, opening pages were all showing not telling, author obviously hadn't been in a school setting in years.

Said author wrote a scathing blog post and twitter campaign knocking self pubbed authors. Ms. Harrison, trust me, I've read better books f***I gave this a one star rating over a year ago when I reviewed, or tried to review the arc. I'm doing the review now bc of the author behaving rudely to writers.**

Srsly one of the worst books I ever tried to read. Juvenile dialogue, read MG rather than HS, opening pages were all showing not telling, author obviously hadn't been in a school setting in years.

Some quotes that may help you understand my decision to not complete this:

"She doesn't understand that sometimes you have to get a guy's attention first, and then afterward, you can let it be more natural."

"I didn't worry about that much, because one I told Mark to exile Mel, no one at the school would speak to him again."

"Clearly, she needed help with love. I had experience. She might think that love shouldn't be helped along but I knew better. In my case, it had been enough to bat my eyelashesSome quotes that may help you understand my decision to not complete this:

"She doesn't understand that sometimes you have to get a guy's attention first, and then afterward, you can let it be more natural."

"I didn't worry about that much, because one I told Mark to exile Mel, no one at the school would speak to him again."

"Clearly, she needed help with love. I had experience. She might think that love shouldn't be helped along but I knew better. In my case, it had been enough to bat my eyelashes, take Mark's arm, and eat yogurt slowly while I laughed at his jokes and leaned really close to him." (20)...more

When I first heard about Tris &Izzie, I was super stoked. The cover is gorgeous and quite possibly one of the best covers I've seen in ages. Plus, I remember watching the movie with James Franco (RAWR!).

To be fair, I didn't finish the book. I barely passed roughly 50 pages before giving up, so my review is only based on what I read. The reason I quit was because I could not stand the writing style. It's not meant to be mean towards the author in anyway, but as an adult reading YA, it wasn'tWhen I first heard about Tris &Izzie, I was super stoked. The cover is gorgeous and quite possibly one of the best covers I've seen in ages. Plus, I remember watching the movie with James Franco (RAWR!).

To be fair, I didn't finish the book. I barely passed roughly 50 pages before giving up, so my review is only based on what I read. The reason I quit was because I could not stand the writing style. It's not meant to be mean towards the author in anyway, but as an adult reading YA, it wasn't for me. The best way I can think in describing the writing style is it's very similar to the way the House of Night series is written. You might enjoy it if you ignore the overuse of exclaimation marks, conversations that didn't flow, and everything written in parenthesis, but I couldn't do that.

The only reason I'm even rating this 2 stars is because I love the cover that much. I really do hate how disappointed I am in the story. Believe me, I wanted to love it. I wanted to keep this book on my bookshelf and showcase it to all my friends. "Hey guys, look at the pretty cover! It's a fantastic story, too!". Sadly, this will be one of those books I either give away or donate. ...more

It could have been a modern retelling of the myth of Tristan and Isolde, a deeply emotional study on a young woman being torn between the two lovers and the tragedy that ensues.

It could have been a hilarious farce about just how many things can wrong when young and thoughtless friends interfere in each other's lives even if they do it with the best intentions.

Or it could have been a magical fantasy adventure with witches and sorceress and murderous serpeThis book could have been so many things.

It could have been a modern retelling of the myth of Tristan and Isolde, a deeply emotional study on a young woman being torn between the two lovers and the tragedy that ensues.

It could have been a hilarious farce about just how many things can wrong when young and thoughtless friends interfere in each other's lives even if they do it with the best intentions.

Or it could have been a magical fantasy adventure with witches and sorceress and murderous serpents.

But it tried to be all those things mentioned above and ended up being none of them. What we have here is a collection of tomfoolery spiced with potions and elemental magic that is neither entertaining or engaging.

It's a pity that the author didn't aim for the farce angle since she writes so well those kinds of charters. Well-meaning but naive Izzie reminds me of Jane Austen's Emma when she sets out to find a boyfriend for her best friend. Branna too has a farce-like characterisation when she finally chooses to acknowledge and reveal the object of her secret crush.

Let's hope that next time the author sets out to do less and accomplishes more.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley....more

I read and enjoyed Harrison’s Princess series, which had beautiful writing and good, strong women characters. When I heard she was writing a retelling of the Tristan and Isolde myth, I was excited. I had high expectations and when I saw that it was up on NetGalley, you better believe I snatched it up.

Oh, I wish I had enjoyed it more. I’ll be frank, this book is bad. Really bad. So bad in fact that I was not able to get more than 80 pages into it, so my review will be based on the little I did rI read and enjoyed Harrison’s Princess series, which had beautiful writing and good, strong women characters. When I heard she was writing a retelling of the Tristan and Isolde myth, I was excited. I had high expectations and when I saw that it was up on NetGalley, you better believe I snatched it up.

Oh, I wish I had enjoyed it more. I’ll be frank, this book is bad. Really bad. So bad in fact that I was not able to get more than 80 pages into it, so my review will be based on the little I did read. I simply had no desire to finish it whatsoever, so I decided not to force myself.

I have no idea how Harrison managed to drop the ball on this one, but man, she dropped it hard. I think the biggest problem is that her writing is honestly not suited for a modern girl’s voice. The entire time Izzie’s voice sounded forced, like Harrison was trying too hard to sound modern instead of a girl in another time. The narration was childish and repetitive, and I had to reread several paragraphs simply because the writing was so confusing I had no idea what was trying to be said. Add to that that there was a whole lot of telling and not showing and this just turned out to be a really badly written book. It honestly read like a really rough first draft of a novel instead of one that has gone through some editing.

I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. In fact I kept wishing the Earth would open up to swallow Izzie whole. She was bratty, mean, controlling, vindictive, and just overall unpleasant to read about. I don’t mind unsympathetic or mean narrators, but Izzie was not a good unsympathetic character. I just wanted her to go away. Once someone starts planning to sneak a love potion to her best friend to get her to fall in love, against her express wishes, that character loses any sympathy and liking from me. That’s just wrong.

I had to give up on page 82, after trying to pick it back up and putting it back down again and again. I just could not get into it, and when I thought about reading more, I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it. A did not finish for me, and it hurts to say that. Huge disappointment.

A copy of this book was generously provided by NetGalley and the publisher for review....more

MirandaYeah, I am so far. Harrison really dropped the ball on this one, and hard. I can tell she's going to try and teach "choice is important!!" but everythYeah, I am so far. Harrison really dropped the ball on this one, and hard. I can tell she's going to try and teach "choice is important!!" but everything else sucks so much the message is kinda getting drowned out....more
Jul 07, 2011 11:02AM

What I thought about it:Tris & Izzie is a book that I immediately put onto my wishlist when I first heard of it. It has an incredibly pretty cover and the summary sounds fantastic. Overall it looked like the perfect book to add to my collection and when I saw it on NetGalley, I was so happy that I could read it even earlier.

And then I saw the first few bad ratings and reviews for this. People said that they didn't like Izzie or any of the other characters, that the plot wasMy Rating: 1.0/ 5

What I thought about it:Tris & Izzie is a book that I immediately put onto my wishlist when I first heard of it. It has an incredibly pretty cover and the summary sounds fantastic. Overall it looked like the perfect book to add to my collection and when I saw it on NetGalley, I was so happy that I could read it even earlier.

And then I saw the first few bad ratings and reviews for this. People said that they didn't like Izzie or any of the other characters, that the plot was confusing and not elaborate enough and that the writing was immature and difficult to follow. But I was so much looking forward to this novel that I didn't really want to believe all those reviews.

But now I have to admit that I feel the same about every single aspect.

Let's start with Izzie: She is not a very likeable character. While there are attempts at making her seem like a person who cares about others, she mostly thinks and acts for her own interest. Even when it's about helping her best friend, in the end it's more important that Izzie feels better by doing so. She is childish and not very consistent in her opinions, therefore it's quite hard to like her.

The other characters sadly don't make up for Izzie. They are flat and you cannot detect any kind of development during the story. While, like Branna, they do something that could be defined as development, their actions only seem to be forced and part of the story just to make it easier for Izzie.

With that we come to the second part that I didn't really like: The writing. Maybe I'm being hyper-sensitive about it and maybe I should try to remember that this is actually supposed to address a younger audience (it's a young adult novel after all), but to me it's incredible childish. It reminds me of those stories that I wrote when I was younger - paratactic, disjointed and with lots of confusing dialogues. And to my defense, I haven't read a young adult novel like this before.

I'm a little bit sad to be saying so many bad things about a book, especially because the idea itself had so much potential. Tristan and Isolde's legend is so beautiful and leaves so much room for a modern retelling. And I have to admit that there were parts of the novel that did have potential if it just were more detailed and not so rushed.

All in all, I just couldn't make myself like Tris & Izzie. But you should know that there are not only negative reviews about this out there - I have read a few written by people who really enjoyed this. I can only say that it wasn't the right book for me.

---

I received an eGalley of this novel via NetGalley. Thanks to Egmont USA for giving me a chance to review this novel. This did not influence my opinion....more

Let me first just say how disappointed I am these past few days, I seem to be reading more awful books lately... well anyway, here goes...

I had a love at first sight with the book’s cover, what with all it’s gorgeous color, autumn environment, it was just so pretty, plus the title captioned and modernized Tristan&Isolde just with the perfect touch. I can almost taste the beautiful potential it has. However, I just had to read what’s inside it. Boy, was I disappointed! What I thought to be oLet me first just say how disappointed I am these past few days, I seem to be reading more awful books lately... well anyway, here goes...

I had a love at first sight with the book’s cover, what with all it’s gorgeous color, autumn environment, it was just so pretty, plus the title captioned and modernized Tristan&Isolde just with the perfect touch. I can almost taste the beautiful potential it has. However, I just had to read what’s inside it. Boy, was I disappointed! What I thought to be one of the epic love story in history retold in a not-at-all epic novel. I read many review saying negative things about Tris&Izzie but I had to give it a try thinking “since I haven’t read the original manuscript, I won’t compare and expect too much. Surely it won’t be all bad!”, also this will be a chance for me to enjoy the story in a modern retelling. Twenty-five percent in, I already didn’t like the way it was written, but still I went on thinking it will get better, but not surprisingly it didn’t! I’m sorry but this is just one of the silliest, corniest, most predictable and cliched story I’ve ever read. It has lots of loopholes and problems I can’t even point my finger on. I hate how trying hard it was to be “fast-paced” without having any breaks at all. Everything happened in one week. Izzie fell in love with Tristan only in one day. ONE DAY! So much action has happened in one day, and I can actually believe those, but love at first sight? Are you freaking kidding me? Not just the love which actually means “I just like like you”, but the “I love you forever” thing, which is ridiculously funny. Moreover, the break-up, make-ups that took place didn’t quite entertained me, it burdened me! Is that how quickly you realize you turned out to be not with the right person? The characters’ personas were so twisted. Izzie was so bitchy most of the time that I hated her. I hated how she can’t just control her feelings and keep it inside a box. I hated how Tristan was so fake. I know I know he’s being true to himself but I can’t help it but see him as fake. Branna. gosh I don’t know how traitor friends like her exist. I can’t just accept how fast Izzie forgave her and how “open” she was to giving Mark (her boyfriend) to her. URGH. Every freaking time I remember it, I can taste how cliche and how fiction it is. And then, there was the main story. I thought this was a love story, but it turned out to be a paranormal fantasy novel, which is soo not what the summary was trying to portray. Sigh, sigh, sigh. I’m so broken by this book. Anyway, despite all my negative comments, I have to say in some parts of the book, I like how the story went. But mostly, I didn’t like it. ...more

I have to say this story definitely peeked my interest to find more stories about Tristan and Isolde. This story is about Izzie who is in love with Mark who is an amazing guy by the way. Izzie has a best friend Branna who really wants to be in love or is she? Izzie's mom is a witch, so she decides to concoct a love potion from the Internet which goes completely wrong, so she steals some of her moms. Tristan a new guy at school who is very handsome,and has his eye on Izzie. Izzie however tries toI have to say this story definitely peeked my interest to find more stories about Tristan and Isolde. This story is about Izzie who is in love with Mark who is an amazing guy by the way. Izzie has a best friend Branna who really wants to be in love or is she? Izzie's mom is a witch, so she decides to concoct a love potion from the Internet which goes completely wrong, so she steals some of her moms. Tristan a new guy at school who is very handsome,and has his eye on Izzie. Izzie however tries to ignore the fact that she is a little attracted to his good looks. She decides without consulting any of the parties involved that Branna and Tristan would make the perfect couple. She decides to slip the potion in their drinks, but something goes drastically wrong and Izzie and Tristan end up drinking the potion. The premise of this story is cute, but I was often annoyed with Izzie, she was whinny and mean to Mark, and stubborn to a fault in her, I refuse the love potion to work on me attitude. Everything seemed a little loose not a lot of depth and it had a hard time coming together. However the last quarter of the book, I found to be much more enjoyable, and interesting. There are lots of things that Izzie and Tristan find out about themselves and one another. The ending had lots of action and was my favorite part.I have to say the cover is just gorgeouse!clean romance...more

Remember how I've always claimed to be a hopeless romantic? Well, how could I not snatch up a copy of this tragic love story? The legend of Tristan and Isolde captured my heart ever since I saw James Franco play the role of the devilishly handsome hero. So, I started to read Tris and Izzie with very high hopes. Not to mention I fell head-over-heels for the cover, which is absolutely gorgeous. Alas, my hopes were flattened as I discovered a weak plot and even weaker characters.

To be honest, thisRemember how I've always claimed to be a hopeless romantic? Well, how could I not snatch up a copy of this tragic love story? The legend of Tristan and Isolde captured my heart ever since I saw James Franco play the role of the devilishly handsome hero. So, I started to read Tris and Izzie with very high hopes. Not to mention I fell head-over-heels for the cover, which is absolutely gorgeous. Alas, my hopes were flattened as I discovered a weak plot and even weaker characters.

To be honest, this story did not work on several levels. The plot is nothing like the original legend, aside from the fact that the characters' names are Tristan and Isolde. That is literally the only aspect of the novel that I can compare to the myth. For someone with a a powerful name like Isolde, Izzie was extremely selfish and immature. I honestly don't think I can find one trait that I admire in her. Her friends and romantic interests were just as paper-thin.

As Harrison reveals the supernatural elements of the story, I couldn't help but notice how haphazardly the plot was laid out. One second, Izzie is just a normal girl dating the most popular, stereotypical guy in school. Then, a random reference to witches or magic is thrown in, as if to shake things up. These paranormal aspects felt completely irrelevant and ridiculous. As the magic starts to invade Izzie's life more and more, I just kept rolling my eyes. Things couldn't be more far-fetched.

If you've been following my reviews, then you know that I hate writing negative reviews. The thought of an author reading my thoughts on his or her book makes my stomach do somersaults, especially when I trashed the story. But my first priority is giving a wholeheartedly honest review. Tris and Izzie is, in my opinion, very poorly written and dull. Stay far away from this one, folks. ...more

Izzie is on top of the world. The only daughter of magical parents, Izzie apparently has inherited absolutely no magical powers, and her life, instead, is one of comfort, luxury and wanting for nothing. She's popular, she's gorgeous, and she has the most athletic guy in school falling all over himself for her. What more could a girl want? But when she and her best friend Branna have a fight, she goes out of her way to set her up with the new boy, Tristan. Unfortunately, Izzie underestimated hersIzzie is on top of the world. The only daughter of magical parents, Izzie apparently has inherited absolutely no magical powers, and her life, instead, is one of comfort, luxury and wanting for nothing. She's popular, she's gorgeous, and she has the most athletic guy in school falling all over himself for her. What more could a girl want? But when she and her best friend Branna have a fight, she goes out of her way to set her up with the new boy, Tristan. Unfortunately, Izzie underestimated herself and her place in the world of magic. As her plan backfires and she finds herself falling more in love with Tristan by the day, she must come to terms with her abilities and her new life, or lose it all forever.

Tris and Izzie is touted as the modern retelling of Tristan and Isolde, two ill-fated lovers caught in a deadly and tragic love triangle. So, naturally, my inner sob-story fiend shouted with glee and absolutely had to have this one. Plus, please take note of the stunning cover - haunting, beautiful and breathtakingly romantic, is it not? Mette Ivie Harrison is a renowned author for her ability to spin heartbreakingly lovely romantic tales with ease, all the while captivating the readers with intriguing characters, a great premise and a wonderful follow-through. Tris and Izzie has, by all accounts, all the set-up for a wonderful novel.

Unfortunately, however, I have to be honest and say that Tris and Izzie didn't work for me on many levels. First of all, characterization is key in a remake of a classic. Whether deviating from the original plot or not, should you choose to model the characters after the originals, there should be some semblance of humanity to them. I felt that Izzie, especially, was exceptionally immature. Never once did a get a grasp on any sense of true character from her and, furthermore, she was only hindered further by mere shadows of characters in the supporting cast, including Tris, Mark and Brangane. Honestly, none of them felt real in any way, shape or form. Tris and Izzie also presented a unique challenge with the love story. The classic is a tale of true love which, yes, is a bit of an insta-love scenario. However, Tris and Izzie amps it up yet another notch by adding a love potion that not only created instantaneous true love for Tristan and Izzie, but also obliterated the true love between Mark and Izzie from mere days before. The ultimate and fatal flaw for me with Tris and Izzie was simply that the premise offers us glimmers of magic and the paranormal. However, all facets of those elements felt rushed, thrown about haphazardly and never truly explained. It felt as though Tris and Izzie had elements that could have made for a great book had they been executed better, but they were simply placed in the novel with no true backstory or sense of direction.

I hate giving bad reviews to authors and their books, and I hate to give my readers a review that might leave a sour taste in their mouths, but I have to be honest and say that Tris and Izzie simply did not work for me at all. I give it a 1 out of 5, and I would recommend it to those who enjoy YA and the paranormal who want to make their own decision about this one.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book....more

My name is pronounced "Metty" like my mother's "Betty." It is Danish, and we were all named after ancestors. I guess by the time they got to number nine (out of eleven), it was getting tricky. So I got the funny Danish name no one knew how to prounounce. In Denmark, it should be "meta" like "metaphysical." It's from the Greek for "pearl." And no, it's not short for anything. Not even MediteranneanMy name is pronounced "Metty" like my mother's "Betty." It is Danish, and we were all named after ancestors. I guess by the time they got to number nine (out of eleven), it was getting tricky. So I got the funny Danish name no one knew how to prounounce. In Denmark, it should be "meta" like "metaphysical." It's from the Greek for "pearl." And no, it's not short for anything. Not even Mediterannean.

My first book, THE MONSTER IN ME was accepted for publication in 1999 and was published in 2002. My second book, MIRA, MIRROR was published in 2004. The latest book, THE PRINCESS AND THE HOUND , was published in 2007. A sequel, THE PRINCESS AND THE BEAR, came out in April of 2009.

I now live in Utah with my husband and 5 children, ages 5 to 14. I write during nap time, or at 4 in the morning, or while the broccoli for dinner is burning. Whenever I get a chance. I love to write the kind of books that I love to read. And I love to discover what is going to happen next, just like a reader would. I also do some racing in triathlon.